My thoughts about traveling on the road, being a widow at 50, and living life as if today could be the last.
**My navigator is God**

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Welton, AZ

After returning from Oklahoma, I met up with my friends at Welton, AZ. Welton is a small town just east of Yuma, AZ. There were only about a dozen of us parked out on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land just a mile south of the highway, but boy, did we pack a lot of activities into this week. As you will see we went 4 wheeling 2 times, hiking, visited a ranch, and those are only the things I posted photos. We went out to eat several times in town, had several campfires and watched football over at Kurt's where we had a potluck.

The wall between the US and Mexico. This was our first 4-wheel trip.

All of our 4-wheeling was done on Barry M. Goldwater Range, managed by the marines. To access this range you need a permit, not just the vehicles, but every person. So on Monday morning we all went to the local marine base in Yuma and got our permits, 17 of us. Several more went on the own later to get their permits. Then on the day you go, you have to call in and give the names and permit numbers and the number of vehicles, where you are going and about how long you will be. Hopefully this assures they won't be bombing in the area we are going jeeping.

Getting ready to leave.

This was the ultimate goal of the day, High Tank. It is just a hole which accumulates water. But in this dry climate, it becomes invaluable for keeping the wildlife in the area alive.

Climbing out of one of the gullys we traversed this day.

After getting the permits we went back to Welton and the Dobson Ranch. It is a living museum, in that the owner lives in the house, which is also part of the museum. Her furniture, knick-knacks, and all her decorations are antiques which she and her late husband have found throughout the US. Most of the finds were dug up from trash heaps and dumps. There is also hundreds of items outside as well, plus they have a small restored town which has been completely furnished back as close as possible to how it would have looked. Plus there were tractors and old motors and old motors and old motors, which her son started up for us.

Just one row of many showing off the old tractors.

Her living room wall is lined with old bottles.

In the restored town there is a mercantile store. Many of these cans have never been opened.

Here is the road going to the ranch.

Just a beautiful sunset I caught on the way home one evening.

We hiked Muggins Mountain.

It really was steep. We estimated it was about a 5 mile hike today.

We took the scenic route home from Dobson's Museum, stopping at Baker's Tank, named for the Baker Mtn Range. As you can see I wasn't expecting to go 4-wheeling that day and took my car. But my little HHR did well and kept up with the big boys that day. Luckily we didn't have any really bad washouts to go over or deep ravines.

Here we are in front of Baker's Tank. Another watering hole which stays wet most, if not all of the time.

We found some old tanks on the range and found one where the turrent still moved. It's amazing how much fun we have with some of the finds we make.

Our second 4-wheel trip was to the Betty Lee Mine. This was another mine we found along the way. The Betty Lee Mine was an old copper mine, whereas, this looked to be an old gold mine.

This is a rescue beacon. I wonder if anyone ever pushes the red button. We thought about it, just to see what would happen, but decided that probably wasn't a good idea. There was more to the sign indicating it was too far to walk out from this point, hence, the reason to call for help. We also wondered if this was for those atv'ers and 4-wheelers or the illegals crossing the border.

We finally found an old copper mine, whether it was the Betty Lee or not, I'm still not sure.

We found this cave of sorts near the copper mine. It would make a nice shelter and was probably home to some Indian family 300 years ago.